Archives for 2014

On December 18, Defending Childhood in partnership with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and Futures Without Violence is hosting a webinar, “Applying an Adolescent Wellbeing Focus in Juvenile Justice Assessment and Treatment Planning.” The featured speakers are FFI founder, Katya Fels Smyth, and Phyllis Becker, Acting Director of the Missouri Division of Youth Services. Spaces are limited so register today!

FFI has released How Do Survivors Define Success? A New Project to Address an Overlooked Question. This report describes FFI’s multi-year project in California, documenting how people who have experienced domestic violence define success for themselves, and how others in the domestic violence field define success for survivors. What we found calls into question many basic assumptions of the domestic violence field, and highlights important opportunities for strengthening systems’ response across California and nationwide.

For the survivors in this project, domestic violence is not central to their identity, and success is not achieved through traditionally conceived pathways to safety. Only 7% of all survivor’s moments of success included leaving or altering the abusive relationship.

In contrast, almost all of practitioner’s moments of survivor success involved making changes in the abusive relationship and 39% were about separation from an abusive partner.

For survivors, success is about connection with family and friends, and achieving something that created value and worth for themselves and others. Moments of “achievement” were seldom related to leaving or making changes in the abusive relationship, and rarely happened in the context of formal services.

Practitioners seem to over-emphasize the role of services and under-appreciate the importance of informal social connections in survivor success.

For both survivors and practitioners, these findings hold true across geographic regions, and both culturally specific and mainstream communities. The practices and approaches characteristic of culturally specific programs, such as emphasizing working with the survivor’s whole family and even community members, are more relevant to mainstream communities than previously thought.

A central finding of this project is that the field must reexamine its fundamental assumptions and pivot quickly into new territory. Practitioners, in particular, are eager for this change and seek tangible and practical ways to better align program success with survivor-defined success and strengthen systems’ response accordingly. For more information contact Anna Melbin.

What people are saying about How Do Survivors Define Sucess? A New Project to Address an Overlooked Question

The Full Frame Initiative has been conducting seminal research that will help the domestic violence field reframe how we think about survivors. The results of their project in California are also an important confirmation of the work that activists and researchers of color have been doing for the last three decades.– Juan Carlos Areán, Senior Director, the National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities and Acting Director, Casa de Esperanza

The findings from this project truly begin to fill the gap in our understanding of how domestic violence survivors achieve success for themselves. What the Full Frame Initiative has contributed cannot be overstated, and now the entire field must capitalize on this new knowledge and take this crucial opportunity to adjust our responses and support to survivors accordingly.– Debbie Lee, Senior Vice President, Futures Without Violence

Thanks to the Full Frame Initiative and all their project partners, we now have real and tangible information about how many domestic violence survivors achieve success for themselves. Success for survivors, like most of us, is about connections to family and friends and a deep sense of belonging, not access to formal services or even leaving the abusive relationship. Our collective challenge is to translate these findings into survivor-defined measures of program success.
– Anne Menard, Executive Director, National Resource Center on Domestic Violence

Our most recent newsletter highlights the many projects and partnerships that are leading to big change for people and communities across the country. FFI’s Founder & CEO reflects on some of the core beliefs that are central to the effectiveness of these collaborative endeavors to support people’s wellbeing, including the acknowledgement that we all, as human beings, are more alike than different. Read on and let us know what you think!

A new initiative, currently called the Conceptual Clarity Project, is underway to promote common principles of gender-informed Batterer Intervention Programs (BIP) and assert the importance of such programs as part of systems’ response to domestic violence. In September, the founders of this initiative held a two-day meeting in Michigan to look at the future of batterer intervention programs, from policy and practice perspectives, and invited some other leaders and experts in the anti-violence field to attend. FFI founder Katya Smyth was honored to participate in this meeting and be part of this critical conversation.

Last week, 22 representatives from six of our Greater Boston Full Frame Network member organizations attended an advanced Five Domains of Wellbeing training developed by FFI. They are working together and with us to continue to illustrate, in greater detail, the elements of their practice that contribute to them supporting people facing multiple challenges to make lasting change. A special thanks to our gracious and welcoming host, network member organization Julie’s Family Learning Program in South Boston. For more information about our Greater Boston Full Frame Network, please contact Anna Melbin.

FFI spoke recently at the annual conferences of the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (CPEDV) and the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence (DCCADV). At DCCADV’s “Looking Forward” event, Anna presented a training on FFI’s Five Domains of Wellbeing, our framework that puts people– not their problems–at the center of the work. At CPEDV’s event, “Connecting the Dots: Domestic Violence, Health and Well-being,” FFI’s Anna Melbin and Audrey Jordan presented “Learning from What Goes Well,” based upon FFI’s research to document how survivors define success for themselves. Huge thanks to both CPEDV and DCCADV for hosting us and joining us in a conversation about how to improve systems’ response for survivors who face multiple challenges. Note: FFI will soon be releasing a comprehensive report and recommendations based on our work in California. To make sure you get a copy, sign up for FFI News or contact info@fullframeinitiative.org.

FFI’s Katya Smyth and Anna Melbin participated in the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WSCADV) 23rd annual conference this week and spoke about FFI’s work looking at survivor success in the context of wellbeing. Katya delivered a plenary address on redefining success, entitled “From safety to wellbeing: Seeing survivors in the full frame of their lives,” and she and Anna led a related workshop, “Beyond Safety: Survivors and Well-being.” Anna also presented “Embracing Victory and Success!” about FFI’s California Domestic Violence Project. FFI thanks WSCADV for the warm welcome, and willingness to discuss new ways of framing survivor success and related opportunities for strengthening the domestic violence field. The conference drew over 400 attendees, from Washington, the northwest and beyond.

Katya Smyth highlights 3 reasons why FFI and Full Frame partners focus on people, not problems, and we share the latest news from our work with amazing organizations around the country. Read it here. Want it directly in your mailbox? Sign up for news using the form below.

FFI has begun a partnership with the Missouri Children’s Division (CD), supported by Casey Family Programs, to introduce the Five Domains of Wellbeing into the statewide child welfare system and explore ways the framework can help strengthen family engagement and support CD’s efforts to help families make change that lasts. Also this summer, FFI is piloting and adapting its “Critical Moment Reflection” workshops in California for men who use violence in intimate partner relationships and the practitioners who work with them. FFI will assess whether a larger number of workshops could be conducted to generate the types of data gathered in FFI’s project with survivors, and ultimately help explore new practice and policy opportunities. The pilot is supported through a grant from The California Endowment.

On Friday, August 15, FFI and its Greater Boston Full Frame Network will be hosting the area premiere of Rich Hill, followed by a panel discussion. Save the date now, and plan to join us at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, MA. The screening is at 7:30 p.m. Rich Hill, winner of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary, is powerful film that focuses on three boys and their families in the small town of Rich Hill, MO. While not shying away from the challenges these boys face, the film is “full frame” in its perspective that beautifully illuminates the protagonists’ strengths, hopes, dreams and, above all, their love for their families. Rich Hill is opening in select theaters around the country starting in August; a list of dates and locations can be found on the film’s Facebook page. It will also be available On Demand starting August 5.

featured news

Nine years ago, the Full Frame Initiative (FFI) was founded out of hope for what could beand frustration about what is. To this day, we stay centered on a central question: what if our service systems … Read More...

Statement on Equity and Social Justice

We believe equity and social justice are necessary for wellbeing--the needs and experiences required for health and hope. People experience barriers to wellbeing based on race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, and other identities. In particular, racism is a key part of what keeps inequity alive in the United States. We believe that increasing access to wellbeing is necessary to end racism and advance racial equity. We are committed to addressing issues of racial and social equity in all our work.